Category: Innovation

Been there. Seen it. Now we’ve done it.

Towards the end of 2015 it was clear that the innovation consulting space had become more crowded and competitive than ever. Let’s set the scene. There were more consultants (large and small), more creative (and cheaper) workspaces to set up shop and increasingly more scalable and technology based tools and services available to the many, not just the few. Our pioneering boutique approach to innovation was under threat. Continue reading “Transformation: Easy to say. Difficult to do.”

The concept of transparency has grown into a mainstream instrument of business to create a more authentic connection with consumers. By now, people are accustomed to voting with their wallets and demanding more from brands, asking to look under the hood – can you be trusted, are you walking your talk? What makes your company, products and culture run? Increasingly though, this idea of transparency (letting people observe) is no longer enough. On the defensive, you share your culture and values outwardly. However this one-sided communication does not guarantee relevance. The most resilient brands have learned to play the offense by becoming ‘permeable’ (letting people participate). After all, if you’re not innovating with your future consumers, you’re not innovating for them.

Permeability creates opportunities for real world culture to inform company culture and output in real time. By actively engaging with relevant communities, you become complicit in creating culture. As part of the dialogue, you’re less reactive and more proactive. Brands and consumers engage in a shared journey, co-creating each others’ experiences. Why is this so important for the resiliency and success of your business?

Your brand becomes more in tune with shifts in culture as they occur, guaranteeing relevance.
Consumers have a more personal and customised experience, strengthening their bond with you.
Mitigate the risk of creating brand products or experiences that fall flat.
An extreme example of strong brand/culture permeability is Airbnb. Aside from the actual product being embedded in culture (staying in locals homes), Airbnb takes it further, by actively cultivating and inviting in local knowledge from hosts. Authentic culture automatically washes through a guest’s stay, seamlessly creating a meaningful travel experience unrivalled by any hotel chain. No insights need to be groomed, nothing artificial needs to be invented or created.

The early majority of legacy companies are now realising they too need to open up to the outside world to avoid being disrupted by utilising their own present and future consumer communities in co-creation. But they’re unsure how to access and harness the right external resources. Abundance can create inertia around options and choice of methodologies.

Beyond social media engagement, what is your company doing to open up and mobilise the creativity of the communities that surround your brand?

Workforce diversity has become a hot topic over the last few years. Minority groups are still shockingly underrepresented, and companies’ HR departments are under increasing pressure to comply with equal employment opportunity regulations. Unfortunately, this focus on checking the compliance box can never unlock the full potential of true diversity.

In a seminal Harvard Business Review article on 2-D diversity, there’s compelling evidence that companies who embrace both inherent diversity (traits such as gender, sexual orientation, nationality and ethnicity) with additional acquired diversity (traits gained from experience – skills, education, cultural exposure), are more innovative and grow faster.

Acquired diversity is the result of life experiences. The more diverse inputs you experience, the richer your creative journey, and the more ‘compound interest’ you accumulate in your creativity-bank. However, many companies still hire people who think similarly, come from similar backgrounds with similar life experiences.

The debate around diversity so far has focused on the workforce within organisational boundaries and overlooks the most important stakeholder group: external audience. If you want to be a creative brand you need to embrace acquired diversity as much as possible.

Opening open up to communities around the brand would unlock what we’d call 3-D diversity. Embedding the raw creativity and visceral experiences of people who live at the edges of culture, into the innovation process itself, will drastically improve the creative journey of your brand and ultimately, as proven, supercharge your innovation and growth.

A decade ago, when sustainability became a hot topic, Nike was one of the first companies to turn sustainability from a problem into an opportunity – to great success. We believe the same shift will happen with diversity.

What’s your opinion? Are you an innovation leader that has a story to tell about the benefits of diversity, we would love to hear from you!

Western consumers have changed over the last five years. Once, the middle classes looked down on value brands as cheap and inferior. Now they’re driving to Lidl and Aldi, snapping up bargains and boasting about how much they saved at dinner parties. Value brands are cropping up all over the home, from the food and appliances in the kitchen to the TV and laptop in the living room.

There are several reasons for this. The first is necessity. Median household incomes in the US dropped by 9.8% in the downturn. In the UK over the same period, they fell by 3.8%. Countries like Spain and Ireland saw even more alarming declines. Still, people need microwaves, fridges and televisions. So many consumers lowered their expectations, and moved away from premium brands. In our research, we’ve discovered that they were pleasantly surprised by what they found. The value brands were actually pretty good.

This wasn’t always the case. Twenty years ago, shopping for appliances involved a tricky balancing act; the cheap stuff wouldn’t work as well, and it would break sooner. If you bought a Miele vacuum, it would cost twice as much but maybe work three times as long as a basic one. Now, that’s less likely to be the case. Thanks to better manufacturing techniques and industrial design, it’s quite hard to buy a rubbish product in the west. There are always exceptions, of course. Turkish manufacturer Beko had a disastrous launch in the UK after many of their fridges burst into flames. Even the poorest western consumers have certain minimum standards. It turns out that they don’t like it when you burn their house down.

Now when you pay for an expensive appliance, you’re not simply forking out for better build quality. Brands like SMEG and AGA justify their margins with distinctive design, and American manufacturers compete on features like fancy ice dispensers. High margin TVs must look ultra-cool on a wall and have add-ons like internet connectivity. Ultimately, some people will always pay for a luxury label on their appliances. Chinese manufacturers can leave that market alone for the moment, and go after the middle classes who want more bang, and not badge, for their buck.

Why bother going after this market with your own brand, when you can create OEM products without the headaches of marketing and distribution? In a word, margins. Even the most successful OEM companies in China eventually get pinched by the margins they can command. Western brands own the relationship with the consumer, and mark up the product accordingly. Look at Foxconn: it grew 51% in the first year it assembled iPads for Apple. In 2012 its revenue grew by 1%. Now it’s launching its own brands of accessories and mobile technologies in a bid to kick-start its growth.

The path from OEM manufacturer to low-end brand to high-end aspirational badge might seem like a daunting one. However there are plenty of companies who’ve made the journey, and have the revenue growth to show it’s worthwhile. A decade ago, Samsung and LG sat firmly in the ‘stack ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap’ end of the market. Through innovative technologies and great design, they elevated their status to become sought-after brands with enviable margins. ASUS and Acer used to make laptops for Sony, Hewlett Packard and the rest, and saw their own computers sell at a fraction of the price. Thanks to beautiful product design, they’ve started to compete with the big players. Personally, I’d rather have a lovely ASUS Zenwatch than an Apple Watch.

In the meantime, Sony, which once seemed unassailable, has been crushed as consumers realised that a great-looking, reliable television could cost only $600.

Finally, there’s the whole question of origin: are US and European consumers ready for a Chinese appliance brand? In my experience, it’s not a question at all. A quick poll of my office, staffed by a diverse selection of super-smart and widely-read consultants, showed that nobody knew where Electrolux, Beko and Maytag came from (Sweden, Turkey, USA), and only one person guessed Zanussi was from Italy. Miele, Bosch and Siemens play off their German origins, and its association with high quality engineering and efficiency. The rest seem to go out of their way to obscure their roots. For many years, Zanussi claimed its products came from a different planet in its UK advertising. If British consumers will happily buy appliances made in outer space, they’re ready for microwaves from Shenzhen.

Chinese brands invented the ‘good enough’ category for developing world consumers; it took a downturn for it to catch on in developed markets. Western brands aren’t going to stand still, though. They don’t want to become the next Sony, and many have developed competitive products for Asian markets – the Electrolux range hood for stir-frying is a great example. It won’t be long before they start taking these products back to penny-counting north american and european consumers. There’s an opening for companies like Haier, SVA and Haisense to get into this market now. It won’t be there forever.